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Leading monitor manufacturer, AOC, has revealed its own Virtual Reality (VR) headset at Gamescom, Germany. We all love VR, many can’t use it because of lack of compatibility, others can’t afford it; I fall into the latter, but I’m fine with that until more games become available.

VR has had a major hype train, Oculus being the first to really popularise it with a Kickstarter campaign a few years ago. Since then, the possible use cases have been somewhat limitless with games (obviously), education, military, medical and even the adult industry; however, the choices for buyers has been limited to the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive with a couple of other lower specification versions such as Google Cardboard and Samsung VR being pushed to the main consumer market.

Well now there is another, potentially cheaper and better optimised, option coming onto the market. Yes HTC designed the Vive in collaboration with Valve, but AOC has the technology and R&D to develop a much more compatible version; along with also waiting a few months to iron out bugs with VR games. Everything is purely speculation at the moment, only prototypes are available to view at Gamescom with very little information being passed out to external press at this time.

AOC will be presenting a few of the new AGON monitors at i58 next week, maybe we’ll get a hands on at the show with some pictures, specifications and maybe even a name; AOC HMD doesn’t really have a ring to it like the Rift.

Paranoia about privacy has soared in recent years since cameras have conveniently found themselves on almost every bit of technology we own; from our phones to even our TV’s and games consoles. The biggest concern with these cameras is “big brother”, is someone watching everything you do? Did they watch you eat that third chocolate bar in front of the TV last night?

While some companies can use these cameras to monitor the user, Microsoft is a prime example of using the Kinect to monitor human presence in a room, the main concern is hacking. It must be a thing, Mark Zuckerberg was captured covering his camera.

There have been some inventions by third parties to cover the camera, but they have been cumbersome and looked shoddy. Well MMD, technology company behind Philips, have now announced a monitor with a well executed pop-up camera. It gives you the convenience of having a camera with the security of the camera being disabled and unable to view anything when it is stowed away behind the bezel.

The monitor itself is pretty impressive too, boasting a 2560×1440 IPS panel, 27″ screen size and a whole host of economic features; it will be a nice addition to any desktop.

Fed up of your iPhone storage filling up? 16GB was perfect when you bought it, but after just 3 days you find yourself frustratingly backing up or even deleting those cherished moments just so you can take a picture of that dog that looks like Donald Trump.

To move up to the next [iPhone] storage capacity, you have to stump up around $100 and the same again if you want the current top tier 128GB.

idime has the perfect solution for you and I think I’m going to cry with how simple this is. A little magnetic puck joins to a well-formed case and locks in place to give you an instant capacity boost from 32GB to 256GB.

It has already hit the original Kickstart goal, but it has now launched on Indiegogo to open up even more perks for prospective backers.

It currently doesn’t look like there is a case offering for any Android phones, but it does come with a Micro USB connector dongle to quickly boost your capacity.

Honestly, I’m not 100% convinced that the twist and lock on the case will be enough to secure it, surely it could just twist off in your pocket; especially if our pocket dialling skills are so good that we can cause a nuclear war in just 5 steps.

Let us know what you think of this idea or any other idea you found interesting.

The totally immersive space discovery game, No Man’s Sky, has been a buzz ever since the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2014. The game boasts one of the largest playable universes ever conceived and it will take approximately 5 Billion years to fully discover the 18 Quintillion (18 x 10^18) planets that are mathematically generated; it’s said that 99.9% of planets may never be discovered by a human player. The end goal is to reach the Centre of the Universe, but during many interviews; Sean Murray states that you can play the game solely as any number of roles and it being a totally enjoyable experience.

The hype train was strong with this one, with only short clips of gameplay leaking out from sources such as IGN and it was always in the presence of Hello Games CEO Sean Murray; who always reeled in speculation from the hosts.

While this was the legitimate side of the PR train, early copies did manage to hit auction sites with some versions selling for as much as $1500. Reddit, Twitch, and YouTuber, Daymeeuhn, was one person who spent $1250 on an early copy and enlightened Reddit with his adventures. This allowed him to rack up many discoveries and around 30 hours of gameplay to reach the Centre of the Universe.

Harry Denholm of Hello Games tweeted late last night that the games servers are going to be wiped of all discoveries for those who have already played the game; it will not affect save games.

This wipe will be ready for the Day One roll out ready for media coverage and the embargo lift, but will it mean pre-release players will lay the game to rest or will it fuel them to play on and try to rediscover the universe all over again?

VTX3D is one of those brands which most turned their noses up to; a dirt cheap AMD supplier with barely adequate cooling and performance capabilities compared to the competition.

Created by TUL in 2009, it set out to offer low-end AMD graphics card at a rock bottom price, in comparison to its brother company Powercolor, to try and steal the market share for new and low budget gamers. In the years to follow, its popularity grew and it gradually pushed for the high-end market segment.

It’s still unclear why TUL decided to close the VTX3D brand, but it can be assumed that the ever shrinking discrete graphics card market has forced TUL to play its hand and keep just the more popular Powercolor brand active. This will allow the company to concentrate more resources and pull back the market share from its competitors.

Monitor company AOC has today announced a brand new line of premium gaming monitors under the new AGON series branding. AOC are well known within the display market and provide excellent display solutions are extremely competitive prices. Today sees the announcement of not only a new monitor, but a new range to incorporate future releases. The first to reach the public is the AOC AG271QX. As the name suggests, it is a 27″ high-speed TN panel with a native resolution of 2560×1440. As we have come to expect from 1440p gaming monitors is the inclusion of 144hz refresh rate and a staggering 1ms response time.

The first to reach the public is the AOC AG271QX. As the name suggests, it is a 27″ high-speed TN panel with a native resolution of 2560×1440. As we have come to expect from 1440p gaming monitors is the inclusion of 144hz refresh rate and a staggering 1ms response time. To keep costs down, AOC has included Adaptive-Sync Technology which is FreeSync compatible within the 30-144hz range. The monitor retains key features from other AOC monitors such as Low Blue Light mode which helps reduce eye strain in long usage periods.

The monitor features all of the creature comforts that would have come to expect from a gaming monitor such as height adjustable base, tilt, and swivel. Something that isn’t included very often with a monitor is an easy grab handle to make LAN trips easier and a simple headphone holder for when it isn’t in use. The base includes simple etch markings for users to quickly identify their preferred settings.

Unique to this monitor is the AOC QuickSwitch controller. It enables users to quickly interchange between Game Mode presets, modes and menus without having to reach for the screen.

This is a very striking monitor with an obvious focus on the gaming market. With a recommended price point of £479, it is a little on the expensive side, but it is the perfect solution for those who like to take their monitors to Bring Your Own Computer LAN events. This monitor will be available to purchase from retailers from June 2016.